Teachers union: Board doesn’t care about teachers

Teachers union officials criticized school board for failing to finalize a contract before the start of school, to the applause of dozens of teachers at Wednesday night’s school board meeting.

“Here I am again asking for the same old thing,” said Helene Samango, executive director of the county’s teachers union. “For you to reconsider and allocate funds for teacher raises and again I will proffer a list of ways you can fund this raise.”

Samango listed several places where the district could obtain money from raises, including class size reduction money, savings from the elimination of a pilot program that paid teachers more for an extended school year. She also said the district’s continued hiring of administrators, consultants and its decision not to layoff is an indication that the district has the money but is not willing to spend it.

“You know there is enough money for teacher raises, and we know it, but you don’t choose to make it happen,” said Dow, the teachers union president. “I do know that you could have wrapped up everything last week and sent teachers back into the classroom with a modest increase, a contract they could live with, a small sense of security, whatever happens next year. Instead you have chosen to keep them guessing, upset them, put a little fear into them. ”

Last year, raises cost the district about $31 million.

Since March, Johnson has said teachers could expect little, if any, raises. When negotiations between the district and the teachers union began in May, the district said it wasn’t giving teachers anything because of the district’s budget deficit.

Palm Beach County schools will need to cut $36 million from their budget next year. But when the rising costs of fuel, utilities and property insurance are included, it’s more like a $63 million cut.

But last week, it seemed that teachers could get a raise. School Board member Monroe Benaim told The Palm Beach Post that the district was trying to find $14 million for about a 2 percent raise. But on Friday when officials from the teachers union and the district sat down at the bargaining table, no agreement was reached. Superintendent Art Johnson said afterwards the district offered what he thought was a reasonable offer but the union rejected it.

Dow disagreed. He told school board members that the school district was not negotiating fairly and that it only offered “husks of corn and leftover mill grease…it’s a bunch of crap.”